January 6th, 2186. Day two on the top floor of the SunTech building. Yan Sun has seemed in better spirits today than the day before. Or at least... a bit more herself. The wound of her mother's death is still fresh, but Jessica's support - and her talk with her father - are helping her deal. So is keeping busy. Getting their things from the rented room was a straightforward affair, a quick skycar trip, courtesy of Guang Huan. Yan Sun wasn't
#SunTower – March 29, 2026
just after clothes - she's brought the concealed AI bluebox back with her to her room, relishing the chance to do some more tinkering. It's therapeutic. She's just finished disassembling the electronics shell in which it was concealed to get it through customs as they travelled, and pulls out the brick-sized marvel of quantum computing, a piece of high tech from well before humanity reached the stars, as inert as its been ever since she
disconnected it from the mainframe on the ice world. She places it gingerly on her desk, a small smile on her lips at seeing it again, and at being closer than ever to fulfilling her promise.
Jessica wasn't exactly excited about being chauffeured, having hoped that their trip back to their room might be an opportunity for more time away from this place. But, while she's managed to keep her complaining to a minimum given everything going on with Yan Sun's upended life, she has been a bit uncharacteristically quiet today. She brought both her clothing and her gear with her, the latter due to perhaps unfounded paranoia about
leaving it in an unoccupied apartment for several days. Back in Adrasteia, that was asking to get your shit stolen. She's mostly been hibernating on the couch since their return, but as Yan Sun removes the AI she makes her way over, merely watching over Yan Sun's shoulder for a moment. "This is still a dumb idea." she states matter-of-factly.
Yan Sun 's smile slips away, and she turns her chair slightly to look at Jessica. "I promised to help it. And now I can. It'll be easy to get the tech I need here. I know what I'm doing," she assures, reaching out to grab Jessica's arm, snuggling up idly against it.
Jessica gives a lift of her brow, looking far from convinced. "You are never knowing what you are doing." she corrects as she shifts behind Yan Sun's chair. She brings her arm around her partner, resting her chin against the top of her head as she looks at all of the components scattered across her desk. "When it takes over to the building and kills everyone, I am going to make sure that I choke you to death before it gets me." she adds
Yan Sun lets out a quiet snort. "It's not going to kill us. It's not evil. It was... alone. And scared. Confused. It watched everyone it knew die. And then spent years alone with their bodies. That's horrible," she says, voice soft as her gaze lands on the small piece of tech on the table, unassuming to the untrained eye.
Jessica falls silent, contemplating Yan Sun's words as she studies the parts. The deep breath she takes can be felt, shoulders rising and falling against Yan Sun. "No. It is definitely going to kill us." she decides plainly as she straightens up, giving Yan Sun's head an annoying little shove before starting towards the bedroom door. "I am getting beer." she explains, moving right along, "Do you want something?"
Yan Sun rolls her eyes, but the question makes her look over to Jessica. "Uh... just a cola. I'd like to keep tinkering for a bit. I'm gonna connect to the inventory list for the labs. If they have the parts I need, maybe we can go down and get them. The lab floor is actually pretty cool."
Jessica gives a hum of affirmation to Yan Sun's suggestion, not bothering to ask what exactly a 'lab floor' is even used for, before continuing on her way out of the room. She starts down the hall, sights set on the indoor bar. While most people might have apprehension about meandering through the penthouse apartment of one of the most powerful people in Hong Kong, Jessica does not. If she's going to be stuck here, then she's going to
be stuck here on her terms. At least she's been able to change out of Yan Sun's ill-fitting clothes, swapping them for a comfortable pair of sweatpants she often sleeps in when it's cold and a tanktop.
Jessica's journey goes unimpeded - Sau Sun has once again made himself scarce, although there are plans for another shared dinner once evening approaches. The place feels terribly empty, too large to have ever felt filled even when Yan Sun and both her parents lived her. That it's always perfectly clean only adds to the impression. It hardly feels like a home, at least in the main areas. Yan Sun's room is undeniable hers. The two doors - one on
each side - that line the corridor on the way to the dining room and kitchen are some of the few that are unlocked, holographic interfaces an inviting green.
Jessica ignores the allure of the unlocked doors as she continues towards the bar. Without knowing where Sau is, barging into rooms is just too much of a risk. She does take a moment to herself to both admire the pool through the window, and give the weird floating sculpture some ocular disparagement. But ultimately she collects what she came for and starts back towards the room.
Only when Jessica turns around does it become apparent that there's actually someone in the kitchen. A middle-aged woman in a black uniform, wearing yellow rubber gloves as she polishes the stainless steel of the sink. She's in the middle of casting a curious look at the stranger that wondered over to the bar, but quickly returns her attention to her work when Jessica turns her direction to head back.
Jessica only gives a passing glance to the maid when she realizes she's not alone, making no attempt at hiding her glance and seemingly unbothered by the potential for her booze-pilfering to be exposed.
Jessica's return to the room is just as unimpeded, the cleaner's curiosity unsated as the unusual stranger departs. Back in the room, Yan Sun has pulled one leg up into her chair, resting her chin on her knee as she looks over a projected list of high-tech components on her terminal, faint, mellow electronic beats filling the room from speakers throughout it. The same music would often fill their small room at the Respite whenever she was
Jessica gives her best attempt at interrupting Yan Sun's concentration by plopping the cola down in front of her. "Here slut." she says before then plopping herself down on the corner of the desk just beside Yan Sun and gets to work on wrenching the cap off of her beer.
Yan Sun flinches back slightly and looks over at Jessica. "Thanks," she says, cracking the Warp Cola open and taking a sip as her eyes go back to the holographic screen. "Seems they should have everything I need..." she muses before taking another sip, eyes sweeping over the list another time.
Jessica uses her tongue and teeth to reorient the cap in her mouth, positioning it between her teeth to fiddle with as she idly scans over the holographic screen, uncertain of what it is she's looking at exactly. Her brows furrow and, after a moment, she hums a quiet, "Mm." as if to get Yan Sun's attention. She blows out a puff of air, flicking the cap out of her mouth and causing it to bounce ineffectually off of Yan Sun's shoulder, an
obnoxious attempt at both assisting in drawing her attention and freeing her mouth so she can speak. "This is something I am wanting to know since we get here, kitty cat..." she begins, shifting a bit against the desk with a thoughtful look on her face.
Yan Sun does indeed look over as soon as the bottlecap hits her shoulder, looking briefly bewildered before Jessica speaks and draws her attention. "What...?"
Jessica folds her arms across herself and brings her beer in close, resting it against the crook of her elbow. "You have a whole fucking swimming pool for yourself, yes? But when we are on that-... that-... fucking place-..." she settles on as the name eludes her, "...and the vorcha are coming? You cannot swim even when your life is depending on it." A hint of amusement creeps into her features, perhaps giving away that it might
just be a way of getting some digs in poorly disguised as a legitimate question. She brings her beer to her lips to take a quick sip before returning the bottle to the crook of her arm. "Why is this?"
Yan Sun 's lips thin when she realizes where Jessica is going with this, her face turning just a little bit red. "Wh-... screw you! I can swim! Those suits were just really clunky!" she exclaims, giving Jessica a light shove and adding "You jerk," with a grin that undercuts her supposed outrage slightly.
Jessica is jostled slightly by the shove and she levels a look on Yan Sun that speaks her mind before her mouth has a chance to. "I do not believe you." she taunts. "When we are done with getting stuffs for your-..." she gestures to the desk with her beer, holding it by the neck and rotating the bottle in a little circle, "...shit, you are going to prove it, mm?" she challenges through an annoying smirk.
Yan Sun 's grin grows slightly, before giving way to an exaggerated expression of nonchalant confidence as she straightens up in her seat, jutting her chin out. "I will," she promises. "'Stuffs', then swimming. It's a plan." She takes another sip of her cola and then leaves it behind on the desk, getting up from her chair and grabbing Jessica's hand to pull her off the desk and along.
Jessica gives a playful roll of her eyes that says she's not buying the false confidence. When she's tugged she doesn't immediately budge, opting instead to take another quick pull from her beer before setting it down and joining Yan Sun. "So where you are taking me now?' she asks.
Yan Sun lets go of Jessica's hand once she's gotten her moving, and leads the way down the corridor. "The SunTech labs. It's a few floors down from there. I used to spend a lot of time there as a kid," she explains, a subdued fondness in her tone at the memories. She stops at what appears to be just another part of the corridor wall, swiping her hand over a seemingly arbitrary spot, only for the expensive-looking wood paneling to part and
slide open, revealing a room with a set of shelves of cleaning supplies on one side, and recycling containers on the other. There's a door straight across.
Jessica listens, but she finds herself suddenly distracted when Yan Sun exposes a hidden door, causing her to shake her head. "Why you are having secret passages in your home?!" she asks, sounding far more confused than impressed by the reveal.
Yan Sun doesn't seem to have realized that Jessica would be surprised by the sudden reveal of a hidden passage, the route so ingrained in her that she took it without thinking. "H- Oh, uh, this connects to the service corridor. It's...these are the staff areas," she explains, suddenly feeling self-conscious as she leads the way across the room. The door opens automatically, leading them into a corridor with a much more utilitarian look, the
walls plain and the floor covered in scuff marks from containers and carts. "It's, uh, I used to shortcut through here a lot. To get to the elevator."
Jessica doesn't seem to be any less confused, Yan Sun's response doing little to answer her question. "And you are hiding it because...?" she begins to reiterate but is suddenly distracted by another thought: "There are more hidden places?" she asks, trampling over her original question with something more interesting.
Yan Sun furrows her eyebrows. "Uh... yeah, a few, I guess," she confirms. "Concealed staff doors and some maintenance panels." The corridor holds multiple other doors, all along one the same side as the one they enter it from. One is extra-wide, with an interface that indicates it must be a service elevator. Both ends of the corridor has door interfaces on odd-looking barebones surfaces that must be what the other side of the concealing wood
panels look like. It's for one of those ends - the one next to the service elevator - that they're headed.
Jessica passes a glance down the hall with a newfound suspicion. Any and all empty space could be a potential door. She narrows her eyes on a particular stretch of uninteresting wall. She's not convinced. Nonetheless, she follows behind Yan Sun. "I bet your father is having some kind of sex dungeon hiding in here." she muses distractedly. "He looks like that."
Yan Sun 's face scrunches in disgust just as she's about to reach out for the interface, a startled snort of laughter slipping out. "Jessica!" she exclaims. "做乜撚嘢..."
Yan Sun shakes her head vehemently. "No! It definitely isn't! Gross..." she replies as she opens the panel, leading them into the antechamber, emerging from right next to the falling water rectangles, as it turns out.
Jessica is temporarily distracted as she tries to get her bearings, gaze scanning about, but she quickly returns to task. She moves along the wall to her left, brows furrowed in concentration as she studies the wall for any sign of a seam that might indicate another hidden door. She brings a hand against the wall, running her fingertips along the edge of one of the suspicious rectangles, unbothered by any potential splashing from the
waterfalls and undeterred by the bamboo planters. "I am-... going to find his sex dungeon..." she mutters aloud distractedly, ignoring Yan Sun's protests.
Yan Sun 's expression is a a struggle between exasperation and amusement, and she grabs hold of Jessica's arm to pull her away from the wall. "There's no dungeon! Stop being gross and come on!" she says with a tug.
Jessica scoffs loudly, but complies. "You are going to be feeling so fucking stupid when I find to his dungeon." she insists, her expression doing little to give away whether she's being serious or merely trying to annoy Yan Sun.
Yan Sun ignores Jessica as she leads them into the elevator, selecting a floor 4 levels below their current one. The doors slide shut with a faint hiss, the ride smooth and quiet.
Guang Huan's synthetic voice sounds as the elevator comes to a stop: "Now arriving at SunTech Research & Development - Level 3 Security Clearance Required."
Yan Sun 's eyes widen slightly. "Oh! Right." She activates her omni-tool, typing rapidly, and a moment later...
"Executive Override accepted! Clearance registered." The elevator doors open to a high-tech gray corridor lined with angled windows that look down at a sterile white room filled with high-ceiling workspaces that are one floor below. Programmers at cluttered holographic terminals, engineers discussing a massive, crab-like mech that stands half-assembled, workbenches and fabricators where prototype circuitry is being assembled, lasers
stress-testing materials, vast server banks, drone test flights. There's no shortage of things to see out those windows.
Jessica steps out of the elevator, following cautiously behind Yan Sun, her own smirk slipping a bit as she studies the foreign environment. "...What is this place...?" she asks, obviously hoping for some sort of explanation as for why they would have need for a place like this.
Yan Sun doesn't quite seem to register how utterly alien this space must be to Jessica at first, at least until the question makes her look her way. "Oh. Uh. Like I said, this is the labs. R&D. This is where SunTech develops new technologies," she says as they look out at the work that goes on below. "Several floors of the building are dedicated to R&D."